A Violent Day in Youth Sports

I sat down this week to write about an incident I read on NJ.com that occurred between St. Peter’s and St. Benedict’s High Schools where a St. Benedict’s player attacked a photographer who was taking pictures of a scuffle that was taking place between both teams following the game.  However, on October 7^th there was another article by NJ.com entitled “It was the most violent day ever on NJ sports fields.  Are we doing anything about it?”  This story talks about three separate incidents that occurred in north Jersey a few Saturdays ago: the soccer story I was going to write about, a major fight between two teams in Newark that spilled to outside the stadium  on to local streets needing the police to be called and finally a fight that broke out between parents in the bleachers of a youth football game over, of all things…a cowbell.  All of these events are on the heels of an incident last spring where a wrestler from south Jersey who followed his father into the stands to fight fans and received NO punishment for his actions.

            According to the article, “this spate of ugly incidents exploded in rapid succession across New Jersey sport fields on a single day, adding up to a display of unruly behavior among athletes and spectators sickened top athletic officials and state lawmakers alike.  And while toxic conduct in the athletic realm is nothing new, the sheer numbers of incidents over one autumn day is ringing alarm bells that no form of rules or regulations have managed to slow the steady decent of new lows at sporting events.”  The athletic director at Westfield High School stated, “it could be a lot of things, but we have to find out what’s riling people up more than it has in the past.”  I have been doing quite a bit of research on this subject over the past few years and in my humble opinion some of the major factors in the uptick are travel/select/elite programs that are selling the belief that youth and high school sports are an easy path to college scholarship and a path to a future pro career; however, I have written on many occasions the number of youth sports athletes that actually get scholarships is quite low, in fact, according to the NCAA, the percentage of high school athletes receiving some kind of college athletic scholarship is very low and is generally cited at about 2% and to add insult to injury most of these scholarships are partial rather than a full-ride.  A recent Facebook post by “The Baseball Aholic” showed a pyramid that stated there are 3.4 million youth baseball players, 455,000+ High School players, 25,000+ college players, 7,000+ minor league players, finally capped off with 1,280 major league players so even with a college scholarship (which will definitely be a partial scholarship) about 5% of all the youth players playing baseball will play at the major league level.

            The Old Bridge athletic director stated “things can quickly spiral out of control when emotions run high.  The focus has shifted too much towards wins, highlights, and personal recognition rather that the lessons and enjoyment that sports are supposed to bring.  When that perspective is lost, behavior in the stands and on the field can turn negative fast.”  And what leads to the emotions the athletic director is speaking about, could it be the thousands of dollars parents are investing in their children at younger and younger ages.  Parents want a return on that investment leading to pressure being put on the kids and coaches at the high school level leading to these incidents.   The article states “While the state has attempted to deal with these outbursts, state athletic officials and lawmakers are seizing the moment and are renewing calls for stricter penalties and more accountability.  But it’s done little to quell the steady flow of ejections, brawls and general turmoil experts say.”

            The article goes on to state that lawmakers are “seizing the moment” about developing stricter penalties and more accountability for out-of-control youth sports behavior.  In 2022 Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn introduced legislation that would strengthen penalties for assaulting an official and add harassment charges for spectators found to be verbally tormenting referees. The assemblywoman stated, “what we’ve been doing to curb these bad acts obviously hasn’t been working and it’s time to put an end to it, to not only protect sports officials, but also kids who are caught in the middle.”  In 2020 Assemblymen John McKeon and Benjie Wemberly introduced a bill to form a task force comprised of various experts, parents, and youth athletes to examine aspects of youth sports in New Jersey, including bad behavior at games.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find anything regarding the McKeon/Wemberly Task Force ever being implemented and the bill that Assemblywoman Flynn introduced has not been passed into law leaving me to wonder if the legislature is really “doing anything about the violence.”  My question is do the politicians really want to attempt to work to solve this problem, or are they just grandstanding when an incident occurs, propose legislation and once the incident is forgotten, the legislation dies a slow death, and nothing gets done? 

            John O’Sullivan, a New York native who has coached soccer across all levels, runs the “Changing the Game Project”, an organization dedicated to eliminating the “win at all costs” model of youth sports stated, “we need to get back to making the games fun.”  This is something that I have been preaching since I started writing this blog.  As the adults in the room, we need to look at what we are doing to our children…are we allowing them to be children and play youth sports with their friends or are we intent on making them little “professionals” spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to chase the nearly non-existent college scholarship and absolute dream of playing professional sports.  In the article Assemblyman Wemberly stated what I stated earlier in the article and in many of my earlier blogs, “there’s an investment in these kids at an early age” he stated. The further stated that in soccer, “kids are identified as 5- or 6-year old’s as ‘The Next.’ And now they are living under the pressure of being the next great thing.  It’s unfair” he stated.

            I have been saying for two years now youth sports are truly getting out of control.  I have stated a myriad of times I feel youth sports are very important to children as sports give children and avenue to get out and burn excess energy, get some exercise, learn teamwork and everything associated with working as a team, but like most other things dealing with children, the adults have found a way to monetize children’s play and, because parents are spends thousands upon thousands dollars youth sports is no longer the “carefree, fun” activity and has led to the violence we are seeing today.